BAY CITY — Michigan juries now have a few extra tools at their disposal in their efforts to uncover the truth.

But in Bay County, those tools have been in jurors’ hands for some time.

The state Supreme Court in June approved new rules governing jury conduct, which took effect Thursday. The alterations allow jurors to question witnesses through a judge, take notes during trial, visit crime scenes and, in civil cases, discuss a case among themselves before a trial ends.

“Overall, I think the changes are very positive,” said Bay County Chief Circuit Judge Kenneth W. Schmidt, who took the bench in March 1996. “It’s meant to try to keep the jury more informed as the case goes on.”

Whether jurors can takes notes, question witnesses or visit a crime scene is up to a given judge, Schmidt said. “We’ve implemented that quite a while ago. Some judges do it, some don’t. I’ve allowed note-taking pretty much since I took the bench.”

“I don’t think it will be a huge change,” added Bay County Chief District Judge Timothy J. Kelly. “Whenever a new rule is put into practice you have to see what comes up. We all want the process to be smooth, workable and understandable.”

When a juror wants to question a witness, he or she writes the inquiry on a slip of paper that is passed to the judge. If the judge deems the question is relevant, he reads it aloud. This screening process, rather than allowing jurors to ask questions directly, is done to weed out inappropriate or irrelevant questions, Kelly said.

Bay County judges have been allowing juries to visit crime scenes for years as well, though the new twist allows jurors to request such a trip. In the past, attorneys or judges had to ask for the field trip.

“Jury views can change the whole complexion of the case,” Kelly said. “It can be very helpful to get a perspective of what the scene looks like.”

However, one mandatory change involves the judge having to inform the jury at the outset of a trial what elements of a crime prosecutors are attempting to prove or, in a civil case, what a plaintiff hopes to prove.

“In the past, we always told the jury what the elements of a crime were at the end of the case,” Schmidt said. “It allows jurors to understand and comprehend what they’re hearing while they’re hearing it as opposed to keeping it under wraps, so to speak, until the end of the case. We couldn’t do that before.”

It is also now mandatory for judges to provide juries with written jury instructions, something Bay County judges have done for 15 years, Schmidt said.

Attorney Matthew Reyes, of the Bay City firm Rieman & Reyes, agrees many of the revamped rules are positive, particularly allowing jurors to question witnesses while they’re on the stand.

“It saves time and clears up any ambiguity jurors might have three days later when they’re trying to determine what a witness said,” Reyes said. “One of the things I like about the questions is it gives me some insight into what jurors are thinking. A lot of times I go through a trial and don’t necessarily know what’s going to be important to a jury and what’s not.”

He is not a fan, however, of jurors being allowed to discuss a case as it’s ongoing.

“My problem with that is the nature of the way we do things is one side presents all their evidence first and then the other side presents their case,” he said. “My fear is decisions will be made prior to them having the whole case.”

The new rules limit in-trial deliberations to civil cases, though it is theoretically possible the Supreme Court could adapt the rule to include criminal cases, said Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran.

“As long as the instructions are adequate, I think it’s worth checking out,” he said.

Other new changes include judges being allowed to summarize the case to jurors and to ask a deadlocked jury what is causing their impasse.

“In addition to their opening statements and closing arguments, attorneys can now make interim commentary,” Sheeran said. “That’s brand new and wasn’t permitted before.

“Most of these, I think, are welcome changes,” he added. “In Bay County, we’ve been ahead of the curve on this.”